Rural-Urban Migration in China and Indonesia (RUMiCI)

The Rural-Urban Migration in China and Indonesia project was established to investigate the impacts of internal migration within China and Indonesia. In particular, the investigation is focused on the collection of data through five year longitudinal surveys in China and Indonesia and the use of these data to answer questions with relation to migration's impact on income mobility, poverty alleviation, education, health and nutrition of migrant children, and the assimilation of migrant workers into the city.

Up to date, we have completed six waves of the surveys both in China and four waves in Indonesia. The findings and issues were discussed and disseminated in the two RUMiCI Conferences, the Rural-Urban Migration in China and Indonesia: Trends and Lessons 2008; and Crisis and Socio-Economic Dynamics 2009. The survey results have been analysed and the papers were published in May 2010 by Edward Elgar Publishing, UK in a book entitled 'The Great Migration'. It proves that the survey and research are more influential than ever. Prof Xin Meng, the project leader, was recently interviewed by Wall Street Journal: What Worker Shortage? The Real Story of China’s Migrants.

We are currently carrying out the 7th wave of the surveys in China for 2014. The first two waves of the China and Indonesia data (2008,2009) have been published.The third wave data (2010) and more will go public as planned.

In addition, the RUMiCI launched the survey and research in Vietnam by the project of Study of Rural-Urban Migration in Vietnam with Insights from China and Indonesia, which is funded by the AusAID Public Sector Linkages Program. The research activity commenced in November 2011 and will complete in November 2014. It will be integrated into the RUMiCI project as a comparative study with the rural-urban migration in China and Indonesia, which has been carried out up to date from 2006.

As research findings are made complete they will be published in the relevant sections of this website. However, for more information about our project, please go to our ARC Funding Application.